The infamous UFO sighting at Rendlesham Forest in the 1980s undoubtedly put Suffolk on the map when it comes to close encounters of the third kind so we thought it was time to investigate more recent incidents.
In 2023, a SuffolkNews article about a mum and daughter who believed they saw a UFO prompted a small flurry of responses.
Readers got in touch to say they thought they too had seen something unexplainable in the night sky.
Bella and Kirsty Mason believe they saw a UFO in August 2023. Pictures: Suffolk News/Kirsty Mason
August 2023: ‘A mum from Barrow near Bury St Edmunds said she is 100 per cent sure she saw a ‘UFO’ last night’
The initial story was about Kirsty Mason and her daughter Bella, who called her mum to her bedroom after she was scared by what she witnessed.
After initially being sceptical, Kirsty said she was amazed and excited by what she saw.
Three flashing red and blue objects were moving at speed and illuminating the night sky.
They occasionally headed towards each other before disappearing.
At the time of the article, Kirsty said she was 100 per cent sure she had seen a UFO and urged others who might have seen something similar to get in touch.
Ben Bennett believes he may have seen a UFO near Lavenham. Picture: Ben Bennett
August 2023: ‘What was it flying so low over the quiet field at that time of night?’
One of those to contact SuffolkNews was Ben Bennett, who one day wants to make a documentary about UFOs.
Ben, who was living in Thorpe Morieux at the time of the sighting, now regularly visits Suffolk.
He said: “Me and my ex-partner were going to sleep in our cottage outside of Lavenham in the early hours of the morning when our whole bedroom was illuminated with light as if someone was shining an incredibly high-powered torch through our windows.
“We both sat up and looked out the window to see what looked like an incredibly large craft flying very low over the house.
“I remember the strange part was that there didn’t seem to be any noise.”
Despite being a ‘little creeped out’ but what he saw Ben didn’t think too much of it until the next day he saw the article about Kirsty’s ‘sighting’ in Barrow.
He said: “To this day we are not sure what we saw but it certainly felt strange, unlike any human-made object we are aware of that takes to the skies.
“And what was it doing flying so low over the quiet fields of Thorpe Morieux at that time of night?”
Ben is interested in the correlation between UFO sightings and the number of military bases and airfields in the county. However, he doesn’t discount the possibility that there could be ‘beings that we do not yet understand’, that are being spotted in the night sky.
SuffolkNews was also contacted about possible sightings near Bury St Edmunds, Rougham, West Row, Rendlesham and Sizewell,
November 2024: Drone sightings
Alison and Adrian Bruce, who run the Suffolk CE5 field workshop, have reported some of their sightings to the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON), based in the USA.
Recently Alison has seen drones flying over her home and garden in West Row – during a five-night spell last month.
Alison believes these are the same drones that were spotted near Suffolk’s United States Air Force (USAF) bases.
A Ministry of Defence investigation into a fleet of mysterious flying objects that buzzed three US airbases in Norfolk and Suffolk is now understood to be winding down.
Rendlesham Forest, near Woodbridge. Picture: Google Maps
December 1980: What was the Rendlesham Forest incident?
Just after Christmas in December 1980, USAF security personnel stationed at RAF Woodbridge said they had seen strange lights in the surrounding Rendlesham Forest.
In the more than four decades that followed there have been various theories about the ‘sightings’.
The incident even made it to the front page of the News of The World – which used the dramatic headline: “UFO LANDS IN SUFFOLK, And that’s OFFICIAL.”
This article referred to a memo from Lt Col Charles Halt, RAF Woodbridge deputy base commander, which was sent to the Ministry of Defence.
The memo described an encounter with a UFO in Rendlesham Forest.
Since then books, articles and television shows have been written about the incident – and if you have ever enjoyed a walk at Rendlesham Forest you may have seen a UFO trail.